According to a new study, activity has been found to offset some of the negative effects of unhealthy sleep on longevity. Claimed to be the first to examine the combined effects of physical activity and sleep duration on mortality risk, the study included 92,221 adults aged 40 to 73 from the UK Biobank cohort who wore an accelerometer wristband for one week between 2013 and 2015 .
“The study showed that increased levels of physical activity attenuated the mortality risks associated with short or long sleep,” said study author Jihui Zhang of The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, China.
The work is published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Both enough exercise and healthy sleep contribute to prolonging life. However, the interaction between physical activity and sleep duration to promote health is unclear.
The study claims objective measurements were made because accelerometer devices were used to record participants’ movements, rather than relying on participants’ self-reported behavior, which is subjective.
Moderate to vigorous physical activity was classified as meeting World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines or not. The researchers found that in people with low levels of physical activity, short and long sleep were associated with a 16 percent and 37 percent increased risk of death from all causes, respectively.
Short sleepers with low physical activity had a 69 percent increased risk of death from cardiovascular causes, which disappeared when exercise increased to moderate or high volumes.
Long sleepers with low levels of exercise had a 21 percent increased risk of dying from cancer, which disappeared with moderate or heavy exercise.
For participants with a moderate amount of exercise, only short sleep was harmful, increasing the odds of death from all causes by 41 percent.
Sleep duration was not associated with the risk of death in patients who exercised a lot. Among participants who did not meet WHO exercise recommendations, short and long sleep were associated with a 31% and 20% increased risk of all-cause death, respectively. These risks disappeared in those who met the WHO recommendations.
For cardiovascular death, people with short sleep who did not meet the recommendations for exercise intensity had a 52 percent increased risk, which disappeared in those who met the WHO’s recommendations for exercise.
For cancer deaths, long sleepers who did not meet the WHO’s exercise recommendations had a 21 percent increased risk, which disappeared among those who followed the WHO’s guidelines.
“Our findings suggest that health promotion efforts targeting both physical activity and sleep duration may be more effective in preventing or delaying premature death in middle-aged and older adults than focusing on either behavior alone,” Zhang said.
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